


Blanket Ghost

by obsidianfr3ak



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, family time:'), idk what went wrong, this was suppose to be a happy fic, we need more max content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27299212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsidianfr3ak/pseuds/obsidianfr3ak
Summary: On Halloween, ghosts could come out without any problem. They could camouflage themselves among people and coexist with the living. But as soon as the night of October 31 ended, the ghosts had to return to the graves they came from and stay there. Alone. Without anyone remembering them. Until next Halloween.Max wished he were a ghost.
Relationships: Adrian Everhart | Sketch & Max Everhart | The Bandit
Kudos: 13





	Blanket Ghost

Max used to like to see the city through his bedroom window when he was little. He spent hours glued to the glass, observing the landscape. If he was lucky, sometimes a little bird would perch on the edge of the window. Not so long ago, a big, chubby pigeon had started building its nest there. His dad asked him if he wanted to get rid of it because “pigeons are flying rats, son.” But Max defended that pigeon as if his life depended on it. He assured that she was just a little bird looking for a place to live. His dad let him keep the pigeon (but refuse to apologize for calling her a flying rat.)

The pigeon finished her nest and laid her eggs. Max was looking forward to seeing her kids.

But one day, it was so windy that the nest flew off. With everything and eggs. The pigeon did not return.

Adrian asked him if he wanted him to draw a pigeon for him, but Max knew it wouldn't be the same.

After that tragic incident, it was as if Max realized for the first time in his entire life how truly alone he was.

And that feeling was especially noticeable during parties like Halloween.

The Renegades had tried to do something new that year. Patrol teams could volunteer at orphanages or hospitals on Halloween night. Since no one wanted to participate (Adrian's team didn’t count), someone on the Council had the great idea to turn the dynamic into a contest. The teams put a certain amount of money to enter. They were assigned a place where they would volunteer. Another renegade colleague was going with them to act as judge. They would evaluate the team's costumes, activities, and candy. 

Blacklight had suggested that they also evaluate how many children they made cry, but Tsunami intervened and convinced that the rest of the Council to make it a rule that it was forbidden to make people cry. Thunderbird didn't care about it because she said she was going to stay home during Halloween. For some reason, she didn’t like that day. 

His dad explained to him that she was one of those prodigies who thought Halloween was offensive because it was a day that basically consisted of non-prodigies dressing up as monsters, and that's how people treated prodigies when they were kids. So all ended up being like "it's cool when non-prodigies use fake wings for Halloween, but when someone's born with them, they call them a demon from hell".

A day later, he asked Adrian about his opinion on the topic. Adrian said that he considered Halloween the perfect opportunity to embrace each prodigy's unique qualities. So Max decided to have the same opinion.

No team had ever tried to score bonus points and volunteer in Max's quarantine area, which… was good. 

Like, the places where people went to volunteer (or rather to compete) were places where there were children in need. Max was not one of those children. If a team were to volunteer with him, it would be a waste of time and resources.

However, sometimes he couldn't help but think that he would like a team to volunteer. At least to be able to reject the offer.

He would like someone to remember him. Even if it was once in a while.

Even if it was on Halloween.

He had decorated his little city with miniature plastic pumpkins from the dollar store Simon had sent him with Hugh so Max could paint scary faces on them. But Max was a contrarian and decided to grab red paint and spread it on them to simulate blood.

Too much? Maybe.

But it didn't matter. No one else would see it.

No one else would see Max that night.

However, that didn't stop him from dressing up. 

He grabbed an old blanket and cut some holes in it. It was kind of hard to do it with those damn kiddie scissors his parents insisted he used, but he did it.

“Boo…” he told his reflection.

_Not spooked._

Max looked through the window again. During the day, the lake looked prettier. Now, Max only wished he could see the city. 

The real one. Not his version of the city. 

What would they think of his costume? What would they think of him?

Why did it matter?

No one else could see him.

Like ghosts. No one could see the ghosts. No one who was alive, at least.

Which was sad, but at least the ghosts had each other. Max had no one.

Stars. How ungrateful he was. Max had everything. Toys to play with. Food to eat. He could read, write, and knew all his math. He could ask for anything in the world and they would give it to him on a silver platter. Most importantly, Max had a family. A good family. There were children who had no father, but he had two. And he had heard that Oscar once said he was sorry he couldn't have a brother like Adrian, and Max remembered being extremely proud that he did have a brother like Adrian.

_How can you have it all and still feel like you have nothing?_

A light at the end of the hall lit up. Max turned off the light in his room and hid behind a piece of furniture.

“Max?” 

“BOO!” 

Adrian took a few steps back, clutching the huge wizard hat that covered his head. As soon as he realized what had happened, he burst out laughing.

“Happy Halloween, Adrian,” Max said. He pulled the blanket off his face. “Look, it's me.”

“Yes, I know, I’m also me—” he removed the false beard he was wearing “—Adrian. Or, well, the Great Adriaknoer, master of the mountain.”

Max laughed. “What?”

Adrian put his beard back on. “It's the name of my character,” he explained. “The theme of our Halloween play was _Dungeons and Dragons_ meets _generic horror movie._ It was Oscar's idea. I think he was just looking for an excuse to dress up as a medieval knight.”

“What did Ruby dress up as?” he asked.

Adrian sat down. “Take a guess.”

“A princess?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay, but—” Max sat down too “—if it was supposed to be a _Dungeons and Dragons_ meets _generic horror movie_ kinda thing... where is the generic horror movie?”

“I removed all the bloody makeup before I came,” he replied. “We wanted to go trick-or-treating, and Oscar and Ruby said we had to look friendlier because if we didn't, people weren't going to give us the good candy. Look, I dropped the bottle of fake blood all over of my tunic.” He showed him a huge dark spot on the purple fabric with gold stars. “Do you think it is difficult to remove it by hand?”

“Sure, I'm a laundry expert,” Max said rolling his eyes. “But nah, I don't think so. Did you scare a lot of kids?”

Adrian shook his head. “No, but Danna did. Unintentionally, of course,” he added quickly. “She was dressed up as a vampire-elf.”

“Sounds much better than Ruby and Oscar's costumes.”

“She was a headless princess and he a bloodthirsty knight, okay?”

“Elf-vampire is still better,” he insisted.

His brother opened his mouth to respond when they heard someone else approach. He smiled mischievously, stood up, and gave him a sign for him to hide. Max understood what he wanted him to do immediately.

He counted to ten. Was it him or more than one person was approaching?

“And Max?” Simon asked from the other side of the window.

And Max came out of his hiding spot with a loud “BOO!”

Simon went invisible for a second. “Max!” he exclaimed, laughing a little. “You could have scared me to death.”

“I didn't?” he asked, pretending to be disappointed.

“Well... I'm still quite alive,” he replied, “so I don’t think so. Next time, champ.”

Max sat down again. Adrian and his dad did the same.

“Why do you have Dad’s suit?” he asked.

“Blue is definitely my color, isn’t it?” Simon replied.

“This year they decided they were going to dress up as each other” Adrian clarified, rolling his eyes. “But didn’t tell anyone because they didn’t want someone else to steal their idea. They call it the ultimate couple's costume."

“It is the ultimate couple costume!” Simon exclaimed. “When you have a girlfriend, you will understand. Or a boyfriend. Or a partner. And she, he or they are going to tell you 'Dude, we have to dress up as each other this Halloween' and you will say 'Sure, but my dads already did that when I was seventeen', and you will get depressed and break up with them.”

Max laughed at Adrian's face. “Wow, Dad, that's very specific,” he replied.

“It’s the truth. Trust me, I'm the Dread Captain, I know everything and I am everything.”

He lifted his neck to get a better view of the corridor, but there was no one. “And where is—“

“CHROMIUM WARDEN!” Hugh exclaimed behind him. Max was startled and his brother and his parents laughed. But Hugh immediately stopped when he saw the costume he was wearing. “Max, what did you do to your blanket?”

Max pulled the blanket off his face. “It's my ghost costume,” he replied as if it were not the most obvious thing in the world. “Did I scare you?”

“I’m more scared by the state of that blanket.”

“I’m more scared by the fact purple is not your color.”

Adrian raised his hand. Max high-fived him through the glass

“Wow, I was going to give you your share of the candy your brother so graciously sacrificed for you,” Hugh replied, showing him the plastic pumpkin filled with candy. “But there is no candy for children who disrespect their parents. Those are taken away by the... the Crying Woman?”

“ _La Llorona_ ,” Simon corrected. “Max, something hilarious happened today.”

He put his elbows on his knees as Hugh sat down next to him. “What's that hilarious thing that happened? And most importantly... who is this _Llorona_? Because I don't want them to take me.” He raised his arms to the sky. “Oh, _Llorona_ , don't take me, purple is my dad's color!”

“I'm not afraid of the weeping woman,” Adrian commented proudly. “I can confidently say anything I want.”

“Wait until we get to the house.”

“Children, children,” Simon chimed in. “Calm down. Adrian, _La Llorona_ is going to take you if you keep behaving like that. Hugh, purple is your color, stop threatening your almost adult son. Can I tell my hilarious story or are you going to keep being dysfunctional?”

As neither of them answered, Simon took it as a positive to begin his story. “Well, it turns out that Kasumi and Evander did go to volunteer in an orphanage, and they didn't evade responsibilities like Tamaya,” he started to say. Hugh passed the plastic pumpkin full of candy to Max. “A week ago, Kasumi told me that she wanted to tell ghost stories from different parts of the world, and she asked me if I knew one. And I told her about _La Llorona_.”

“Who is that?” Max asked. “Dad, can I eat this chocolate bar?”

“Just that one,” Hugh said.

He turned to see Simon. “Other dad, can I eat this chocolate bar?”

“You can eat two if you give one to me.”

“How funny.”

Simon laughed a lot at his own joke. “You can only eat that one. And a bag of gummies.”

Max took it as a complete victory.

“ _La Llorona_ is a woman who killed her two kids,” Adrian said. “When she realized what she had done, she killed herself, and now her spirit goes around the world, stealing children to fill the void her kid’s death left. But it's just a ghost story.”

“That's what you say,” Simon chimed in, “but she's real. _La Llorona_ exists and she does take children who misbehave.” He sighed. “Okay, I'm not liking this costume anymore. If I had my cape, I could give everything a more mysterious look.”

That chocolate bar had almonds and coconut. Those were his favorites. How considerate of Adrian to keep that almond coconut chocolate for him.

Maybe he did remember him. Or maybe it was a coincidence. Adrian wasn't a fan of coconut. 

“It was your idea,” Hugh said, covering himself with the cloak. “And I look very mysterious. I like it. I haven’t wear a mask since I was in my twenties.”

Simon shook his head, smiling. “Well then... Kasumi wanted to be more diverse with her stories,” Simon continued, “so she wrote that one down. Then she took Evander with her to help her with the kids. Now, I don't know what the hell they did, because every time I tried to ask them what happened, Kasumi would deny everything and Evander would laugh like crazy. But the fact is that they made not one, but two children cry.”

Max gobbled down the rest of the chocolate. “Tsunami broke her own rule!” he exclaimed.

“She did!” Simon replied. Adrian and Hugh laughed too, but not as much as Max. He wondered how many times had they heard that story by now. Sometimes Simon forgot he had already told a story and repeated it. It was probably the fact he was getting old. “They are not going to win the prize money, sure, but I am very proud that a ghost story that I suggested scared a child.”

“That is against the code,” Adrian noted.

“That's right," Hugh replied. “What kind of example are you setting for our children?”

Simon wasn’t going to let that one slide. “Adrian, Max, I need your help. Please tell me all the times that your dad has been a bad example for you. And I bet all of Max's candy loot we stayed here all night. If not, let _La Llorona_ take me.”

“Hey, not my candy loot!” yelled Max. “Gamble your own stuff!”

“Now you’re gambling,” Hugh exclaimed falsely disappointed. “Another thing against the code, Simon. Gambling is terrible.”

“Only if you’re the loser.”

While his parents began to argue comically about who was a worse example and why gambling was morally wrong, Adrian began to tell him about this crazy lady who tried to force him and their team to enter her house. Max laughed out loud at his older brother's impersonations and took advantage of the distraction to binge on fruit-flavored gummies, though he knew very well that his stomach was going to hurt when he tried to sleep.

That, plus the "fight" in the background (because their arguments were so ridiculously funny that it couldn't be called a fight) (“YOU PUT THE MILK FIRST AND THEN THE CEREAL, SIMON, THAT’S WICKED” “I HAVE NEVER DONE THAT, IT GIVES ME ANXIETY! TEN YEARS OF MARRIAGE AND YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I PREPARE MY CEREAL!”), it made Max feel satisfied, more smiling, more...

Accompanied.

Having more voices to listen to other than his. More jokes to laugh at than the ones he told himself quietly. More stories apart from the ones he made up in his head so as not to die of boredom.

More people. Less Max.

And while he gobbled down his second bag of gummies, he asked the universe to freeze reality on that night.

_I wish Halloween would never end._

On Halloween, ghosts could come out without any problem. They could camouflage themselves among people and coexist with the living. But as soon as the last night of October ended, the ghosts had to return to the graves they came from and stay there.

Alone. Without anyone remembering them. Until next Halloween.

_I wish I was a ghost. So I would have my other ghost friends._

_Because here, with the living, I have no one._

Max scolded himself inside. _You have parents who deeply care for each other. You have a brother who would do anything for you. You have a family. You have love. You have everything._

He concentrated on absorbing all the happiness of the moment. In memorizing every gesture, every word, and every joke. When midnight struck and he had to return to his grave, he was going to need that joy to keep him company.

Because even ghosts weren't as lonely as Max Everhart-Westwood was.


End file.
